Due to the bureaucratic nature of Chinese universities, a serious researcher cannot pursue his research interest in a very nurturing environment. Chinese universities now have abundant funds for R&D to support their scholars, but the way it is channeled smells of corruption and red-tapism. Living and studying in China, we know about the fapiao (bill) being used to get money appropriated from the R&D fund.

First and foremost, government must reform the fund allocation system and reduce the red-tapism and check out any chance of misuse of fund allocated for R&D purposes. This is the only way to realize the dream of making the 21st century an Asian century. If our universities fail us on the innovation front, we will be in a disadvantaged position to negotiate with the developed world on many fronts.

After the war, for 50 years all the way to the 21th century, African and Indian intellectual elite went to Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Yale, Sorbonne etc. to study, while Chinese elite had to settle for Qinghua, Beijing Daxue, Shanghai Jiaotong, and when they were lucky, Moscow or Zagreb University. And remember that China was not a (medium) rich country then, but poorer than India and at least as poor as Africa.

Nominally, theoretically, or dogmatically, no developing country has had such a "poor" academic environment the last 50-60 years as China, but at the same time...

Shi shi qiu shi. Please be realistic, mr Singh. I hate to see developing countries getting the wrong message from their own people.